Good news: although the original team are not actively working on DUMB any more, kode54 has been! He has created a fork here with very extensive changes including new file formats, lots of playback improvements, and CMake build support. Windows users can immediately hear it in action by installing foobar2000 and adding the DUMB Module decoder component.

DUMB is also the official mod playback plugin for Allegro 5. For those who remember Allegro as either 'a DOS blitting library' or 'some attempt to hack a DOS blitting library into working on windowed operating systems', you'll be amazed to find that Allegro 5 is a contemporary redesign that drops DOS support (gasp) and allows you to use the latest OpenGL and DirectX features while providing you with simple, effective APIs for all the other stuff: window creation, sound, input, haptic feedback (I don't even know what that is) and so on. It also supports Android and iOS. I expect kode54's fork can be used with Allegro 5 too; or if not, I'm sure someone will sort it out now that I've posted this.

Whether you program with DUMB or just use it to listen to music, I hope it plays at least some small part in fulfilling your life's dreams!

2005-11-05 14:40

posted by entheh

Sorry the site stopped working. It was never my decision to use a database, and SourceForge.net's recent newsletters did not exactly emphasise the fact that the contents of the database would go up in a puff of smoke. Luckily, my lack of confidence in the database, and safety and security thereof, had driven me to keep local copies of the news items, and Google's handy cache provided the IDs and descriptions I was using on the Documentation page. Half a day's frantic rewriting later, the site now works entirely with PHP and text files and no longer generates reams of static HTML using 'print' statements and escaped quotes, Mr Baffles. Last but not least, I can maintain it simply by changing files at home and then uploading them. Excellent.

2005-08-07 15:07

posted by entheh

DUMB v0.9.3 has been released, over two years after the last release! New to this release are lower memory usage, faster mixing loops which are now on a par with ModPlug's, loading of text fields in the module files, faster load functions for projects that don't need to seek within the module or know its length, a dumb2wav tool, Visual Studio 6 project files for all the examples, any many small playback fixes. As usual, feel free to browse the documentation online, starting with the release notes, or skip straight to the download page!

Thanks to Chad Austin for significant contributions, including an Autotools build system neither of us recommends using, and for using DUMB in his sound library Audiere. We'll beat FMOD yet. We had 100% accurate length calculation first!!

There is now a new .zip file on the Downloads page, containing replacement project files for Visual C++. Thanks go to the ZFXC-Engine Team for providing it.

Just to say I haven't disappeared. Progress on DUMB is very slow because I am now working full time in game development, but I am still around and intend to continue supporting DUMB and occasionally working on it. Do get in touch if you have any problems, questions or comments!

2004-07-29 15:08

posted by BAF

Hello and welcome to DUMB's site. I have redone the site's page generation code (you probably won't notice any changes) to work with Sourceforge.net's new tighter security. If there are any problems with it, please email me (baf01[AT]bafsoft.com) or entheh. You can also view the old site (some parts of it won't work correctly) here (link removed). Thanks!

2003-04-08 11:43

posted by entheh

DUMB now has an XMMS plug-in! Click the About link for details, and the Downloads link for cheese. Err, I mean the download. Enjoy!

2003-04-02 16:15

posted by entheh

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention the new name. The acronym is the same, but it actually stands for something meaningful now! Thanks to Chris "Kitty Cat" Robinson for proposing the word "Dynamic".

2003-04-02 05:42

posted by entheh

Announcing the release of DUMB v0.9.2! Boasting faster and more accurate mixing code, a much improved makefile with tested BeOS and Mac OS X support, a project file for MSVC users, support for muted channels, finer envelope interpolation, 24-bit mixing resolution, the usual plethora of bugfixes and improvements to playback, an extra copyright owner, a slight change to the licence, a certain amount of thread safety, and yet another deprecated function or two, this is but a minor release with few significant additions. As usual, everything is explained in much more detail in the release notes. Enjoy!

2003-02-18 11:17

posted by entheh

If you are having trouble compiling DUMB with MSVC, then there is some new information on the Downloads page that may help you. See the "Other notes" section.

2003-01-26 10:52

posted by entheh

You may notice that the bar on the left contains a new link. The TCPA is a complex movement whereby computers will be fitted with hardware that combats piracy and opens up the potential for new business models. At least that's what companies like Microsoft and Intel, who would love to see TCPA hardware incorporated into all computer systems, and indeed all electronic systems from wristwatches to toasters, will tell you. Amongst other things, the TCPA hardware will in some cases require software to be certified before it will run. Whichever huge company takes the reins will no doubt charge big money for this service, jeopardising free software projects like DUMB. Please visit the site and add your support, especially if you are a webmaster!

2003-01-19 19:18

posted by entheh

The About page was recently lost through a stupid web browser accident, and had to be reconstructed! Editing a website through a form in a browser? I mean, really. Tigge, get off your lazy $%&# and implement the back-up facilities. NOW. And it would also be nice to be able to edit off-line and use some cool Unix tool to upload the content...

2003-01-15 19:41

posted by entheh

Thanks to David A. Capello, we have a new logo! It's a .png file with a nice full range of alpha values, meaning that Microsoft Internet Explorer is very unlikely to get it right. Recent versions of Mozilla and Opera will display it correctly. I cannot comment on other browsers.

2002-12-19 04:51

posted by entheh

DUMB v0.9.1 is available! This version of DUMB supports low-pass resonant filters for IT files, has much improved support for XM and MOD files, and applies click removal to the playback. It also offers a plethora of new API calls (finally!).

View the release notes online for further details, or go straight to the Downloads page by clicking the link on the left.

2002-10-16 21:03

posted by entheh

How wrong I was! It turns out that DUMBOGG v0.5 does indeed work with DUMB v0.9. DUMBOGG v0.5 uses some deprecated naming conventions, but only in its internal variables; it doesn't try to refer to any of DUMB's API using these deprecated names.

That's good news then. It's going to be a royal headache for me going round and correcting information all over the place, but I won't need to make a new release of DUMBOGG yet, which is good considering it wouldn't have had any new features!

So now you have no excuse not to upgrade DUMB, especially considering future versions of DUMBOGG will fail to compile with DUMB v0.8.1...

2002-10-16 16:21

posted by entheh

DUMB v0.9 has been released! This version boasts the MOD support promised last time, in addition to letting you retrieve the playback time of a module. The other changes are somewhat academic for most users, but be warned that DUMBOGG v0.5 is not compatible with DUMB v0.9. If you are using DUMBOGG, you will probably want to wait for DUMBOGG v0.6 (which should be released in a few days' time) and then upgrade both DUMB and DUMBOGG at once.

The changes from DUMB v0.8.1 to DUMB v0.9 are covered in detail in release.txt, which you can view on this site along with the rest of the documentation before you download the library.

In other news, DUMB's site has a new colour scheme, so you can say goodbye to that girly pink, err, salmon, chosen by Tigge. I, on the other hand, still have to look at it every time I edit the site. But it obviously doesn't disturb me too much, since the option is right there waiting to be changed and I haven't bothered yet. Oh well!

As usual, any feedback on the site or on this release of DUMB is welcome.

2002-10-06 23:25

posted by entheh

Welcome to the unveiling of DUMB's new website! Apologies if the rather wacky logo up top scared you; fun though it is, in due course it'll probably be replaced with one that matches the ASCII art. If you haven't yet seen the ASCII art, browse the Documentation section. Try not to gawk too hard.

The latest version of DUMB can play IT, XM and S3M files (and OGG with the aid of the DUMBOGG add-on). Something is definitely missing, but never fear; MOD support is just around the corner (next release), and those brave enough to set up CVS can enjoy it already. The good people involved in KQ have done just that, so, provided we release ours before they release theirs, KQ will be using DUMB from now on!

In addition to MOD support, DUMB CVS has a fast seeking algorithm and calculates the playing time of the modules it loads. I was planning on adding more functionality before release, but since my second year at university is starting in a few days' time, I might make a release sooner.

So what's the upshot of all that? No new release? How boring. But don't go away just yet; if you're at a loose end, why not visit the Showcase section and try out some of the games currently using DUMB?

Big thanks to Tigge for setting up the website! It's heaps better than anything I could have done by myself. I'd appreciate any comments about the site, or about anything else DUMB-related.